Message 20: Mon May 6 13:42:15 (read) From: eccles [To: caligari] http://www.arsimagica.net/~eccles/roleplaying/werewolf/liam.combat.2 Message 18: Mon May 6 13:44:25 (read) From: eccles [To: anthony benji caligari lee zahn] Confirmation: Melissa is not with you. Message 14: Mon May 6 13:53:25 (read) From: eccles [To: anthony benji caligari lee zahn] Neither Grek nor Melissa is with you Message 11: Mon May 6 13:57:10 (read) From: eccles [To: anthony benji caligari lee zahn] :) Nope. I hads to checkwith his guruness. :) Message 10: Mon May 6 13:59:01 (read) From: eccles [To: caligari] no worries :) cya in a bit Message 5: Mon May 6 17:39:11 (read) From: caligari [To: eccles] Dex. I see two aspects (at least) to this. 1) There's the "in the real world doing damage with this sort of skill is much more about the muscle reflexes than muscle strength; essentially, damage is the result of fast-twitch muscle fibres, not the slow-twitch ones which relate to max lifting power etc.; effectively this translates to a rpg setting as "reflexes" or "dexterity", and not sheer strength." It may be the case that for many "western" combat arts the sheer strength controls the amount of damage, but martial arts are specifically designed to allow those with little strength to either use the strength or mass of the opponent to cause damage, or to use the benefits of small and incredibly fast movements, rather than sheer strength to cause damage. It is a different philosphy of combat damage, due in part to the phisiological differences present in the populations that orignated Message 4: Mon May 6 17:39:12 (read) From: caligari [To: eccles] such arts of war. It carries over to their weapons entirely, with the blanace of the weapons being such that in most cases the damage done is a factor of wrist snaps and such, and not shoulder strength. The experts in the authentic martial arts are not muscled, despite years of training, because the art does not depend upon, nor develop, that sort of muscle. 2) From a game perspective, there should be some difference between the martial arts and the non-martuial arts. While sich things as maneuvers provide some differences, there seems little reason to have specifically Martial Arts versions of the skills if they simply pick between a different set of maneuvers - better then to simply declare that different sets of maneuvers are appropriate for different combat styles and be done with it. What makes martial arts different, it seems, is that they are entirely about dexterity. That should mean that Message 3: Mon May 6 17:39:12 (read) From: caligari [To: eccles] a relatively weak (strength) character would use them to overcome the relative lack of strength - they provide an alternative path to doing damage, and one which is affected by changing forms differently. Where Brawling relies upon brute force to deal damage, the message with martial arts is that it is not about that sort of force at all. Specifically, when Kimu was first created I think he had a Str of 2 or perhaps 3. He had a lot of trouble doing damage to enemies, and it has seemed that you *must* be either muscle-bound (str4+) or possess a stupendous weapon of some sort to do damage. That means that all the characters develop towards the same shape - decent dex and high strength - either to do damage, or as the result of fighting (getting ticks and such). It would seem desireable to at least in some situations encourage the development of characters along different lines who can be equally Message 2: Mon May 6 17:39:12 (read) From: caligari [To: eccles] competitive. The difference bettween asian and western combats arts seems an obvious place to do this, as it has resulted in or been led by observable differences in humans from these two areas. A character tied to dex for "to hit" and "damage" is advantaged by only having to develop a single stat for combat. But it also disadvantaged a small amount in that progress on one aspect is mirrored in the other and development for the two is limited to what is possible for the one stat (ie. you cannot set out to do more damage at the expense of to hit ability). As I said, it is your call. I think its worth doing in limited instances, and have done so in my own games (to limited success), at times. But your sense of your game is the important thing here. Message 1: Mon May 6 17:39:38 (read) From: eccles [To: caligari] wargh! Maybe email big things :)